Pallid colors in cycles
It looks like you just need better lighting. It's best to use an HDR image to light your scene. A good place to get them is HDRI Haven, which has low-resolutions for free (licensed CC-BY), and sells higher-resolution versions. It also has a small but growing collection of public-domain (CC0) ones.

For quick, basic lighting, I often use this HDR image, which should work pretty well here:
http://graphicslearning.com/downloads/hdr-light-probe-01-cc0/

UPDATE 2018: HDRI Haven has now changed its model. It's now completely public-domain at all resolutions!